Document

Document

Irwin Jacobs, the Qualcomm co-founder now leading a drive to remove cars from the center of Balboa Park, is encountering stiff opposition from the Save Our Heritage Organisation over proposed changes to the iconic Cabrillo/Laurel Street entrance to the park.

In a letter dated Dec. 20, SOHO executive director Bruce Coons called Jacobs' $35 million plan that includes a new parking garage "extremely destructive" to the historic look of the west entrance to the buildings and grounds built for the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition.

In his Dec. 31 reply, Jacobs characterized Coons' letter as full of "hyperbole and factual misstatements."

Jacobs' plan, unveiled last year, would replace the parking lot in the plaza, located in front of the San Diego Museum of Art, with a pedestrian-only space; divert cars entering the park on the Cabrillo Bridge via a ramp to the Alcazar Garden parking lot, where there would be handicap spaces, valet parking services and drop off locations; and a roughly 800-space parking garage south of the Spreckels Organ Pavilion. He estimates the project at about $35 million, some funded from donations and the rest from a potential parking-revenue bond measure paid by parking charges in the new garage.

The plan is due for public discussion and a workshop at a special meeting of the Balboa Park Committee from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Balboa Park Club building, 2150 Pan American Road West. See the agenda at the Balboa Park Committee website.

Coons is most concerned about the change to the bridge: "We cannot support the premise that a swath of concrete and massive fill bisecting the entire front facade of the national historic landmark Spanish Colonial hilltop town and historic entry to the park is necessary in order to remove 70 parking spaces from the Plaza de Panama."

He also disagreed with the idea of the new garage because it could lead to even more cars entering the expo grounds. Instead, he argued for a garage at Inspiration Point across Park Boulevard or in other locations.

Jacobs replied that without the offramp from the bridge, 7,500 cars daily would continue to enter the Plaza de Panama and result in congestion, continued safety problems and no improvement in the "pedestrian and park experience."

Coons offered to work with Jacobs on alternatives, but Jacobs said his deadline for completing improvements is December 2014.

"Without a feasible alternative, we, of course, will not 'reject the current plans,' as you request in your letter," Jacobs said, adding that if nothing happens, "it may fall to others to do so by the bicentennial" of the exposition in 2115.